Is Your Business Stuck in the 1990s?

It's a rare business that emerged from the most recent recession unscathed, but among those that have survived, some now seem primed to grow while others are stuck in a rut. What differentiates them is their capacity to anticipate and adjust, according to this Strategy+Business article: "It used to be that a business transformation was a once-in-a-lifetime event" but now it's "a way of life" that business leaders need to "institutionalise".

Making that shift -- from staid and monolithic to adaptable and agile -- means changing to your company's culture, a notoriously tricky feat since 'culture' is so often misconstrued as 'soft' or irrelevant to strategy.

Even though John Kotter made the link between successful strategic change and company culture, a lot of companies still don't 'get' it, believes Dustin Seale, managing director of the EMEA region of corporate culture consultancy Senn Delaney.

Seale believes the current 'austerity drive', especially in the UK's public sector, calls for a cultural de-cluttering. "People are dead on their feet, one person's now doing three times the work. So they need to find ways to do business more easily, less bureaucratically," he says.

He suggests companies start by getting rid of the following:

1. Siloes: Efficiency killers that waste company money and people's time. Replace with: Collaboration -- across departments, within teams, and along the supply chain. Birds Eye has gone from a strong Unilever culture to standalone by creating company-wide campaign such as "Forever Food" that unite employees and its wider supply chain behind a common goal. At Ohio State University, president Dr Gordon Gee is turning a massive, disjointed institution into "One OHS" by breaking down barriers between departments and across sites, starting with one department and rewarding collaboration. Says Gee: "We cannot be 18 colleges connected by a heating plant... we must think and act as a unified, integrated, cohesive institution."
2. A steady state: People like stability and cling desperately to anything that feels like a steady state. They are always looking for the 'next normal', so change orientation has been based around five-year projects and an attempt to 'refreeze' the old culture. But a fixed mindset won't work anymore. Replace with: A flexible, learning mindset that pervades the workforce and allows adaptability to become the norm. You need to have employees and leaders who are comfortable in the grey areas.
3. Blame-culture: The finger-pointing, 'who did this, whose fault' attitude to mistakes is insidious. It's a victim mindset that you'll see at all levels of a business. Replace with: An accountable mindset that focuses on what you can change and allows you to own it. Accountability allows you to define the future rather than bemoan the past. Staffordshire County Council shook off complacency by cutting red tape and telling managers: "You drive it and you deliver it and we'll keep our fngers out of your pie."
4. Empty edicts from on high People also have to choose to go with you -- you can't make them. So it's not about a boss simply saying: 'here are our new values, let's all sign up and start living it.' There's rarely successful culture change without the CEO's continued involvement. "If it's a nice-to-do or CEOs aren't bought in, you might as well not bother," says Seale. To change mindsets, demonstrate why, and how to do it.
   Replace with An organisational tipping point. Have a group of, say, 50 people who are constantly scanning the horizon for what's coming and what it means to the business. "We don't think consultants should be changing culture -- you need to develop 'insiders' then allow them to run with it. Find opinion-formers, even if they are negative. Scratch a cynic and you've got someone who really cares," says Seale.

(Photo: the 5th Ape, CC2.0)